Special Little Monster
by Abigator15
Summary: Chameleon is the very first human/animal hybrid in the world, the invention of the century! But, can the world truly handle it? A person who naturally has animal qualities and skills, not to mention her powerful control of nen! Will the world want to destroy her or will it become a great big tug of war as to who she works for? And what will happen when Chameleon's natural ability
1. Chapter 1

Prologue:

A half human figure floated in a clear liquid, a reptilian tail wrapped around it. Men and women in pure white coats moved about the half-lit room, operating machines and taking notes.

"So, you have incorporated nen in this experiment?" An older man with a bushy mustache asked grumpily.

The lead scientist grinned from ear to ear and adjusted his glasses, "oh yes, but of course! At this rate she will be an all-natural specialist along with all of her reptilian qualities!" He continued to grin as he turned to the glass tank, "she's just perfect, don't you think? She's the first of sixty to last this long." The man walked forward and pressed his hand against the glass.

"You should be ready to come out any time now, we're just ecstatic to meet you! You will be my legacy! The creation of the century!" He laughed and spread his arms out wide.

"Yeah, yeah, but exactly how much money am I going to get back for sponsoring your experiments? You've spent far more than you promised." The business man grumbled, he reached for his coat pocket, but stopped himself as he remembered that smoking wasn't allowed in the lab.

"Oh, you will make zillions! If we ever show our research to the public, countries will want to weaponize them! Rich families will want them as bodyguards! Collectors will want them custom designed! Imagine all of the possibilities!" The scientist burst into laughter once again, the business man let out a sigh. "Gone are the days that people must train for their entire lives to gain superhuman qualities! Gone are the days of those who must waste nen to become equal to an animal's skills!"

"Sir!" The man froze mid-speech and turned around he watched the tank expectantly. The girl twitched.

"Drain the liquid out! Before she starts trying to breath!" The scientist started shouting orders as the tail began to uncoil, revealing small chameleon eyes which were searching in all directions.

After much pandamonium the girl finally sat in a fetal position in her empty tank. The scientist practically pressed his face into the glass, he paused for a second and then tapped.

The girl immediately stiffened, the room "oo"d and "aw"d as there as a yellow spike in her hair at the sound. Both eyes searched for a moment, before landing on him.

"I-It's a monster…" The businessman said, horrified.

"She's beautiful," the scientist cried. Tears of joy began to pour down his cheeks, "hello, Chameleon!"


	2. Chapter actual 1

Chapter 1:

"Peek-a-boo!" I grin as I swing upside down from one of the railings, stopping myself right in another girl's face. She screams, that's funny coming from somebody who just tried to poke one of my eyes. The girl cries and hides behind Aki-san's legs.

"Can't you get that little freak under control!?" The man snaps furiously at Masahiko-san.

"Chameleon, leave her alone." He says nonchalantly, without even looking from his clipboard.

I let out a sigh, "ok." My hair and tail change from bright pink to a slightly depressing blue as my tail lets go of the metal railing. Honestly, nobody here's any fun. All that I do all day is either get a bunch of tests done or do training, both physical and nen. I never get to see other kids.

I silently go and sit in a corner, I let my tail drag along the ground to show my disappointment. Nobody here likes me, well except for Yoshito-sama. He's always grinning every time he sees me, and he talks to me!

"Chameleon, let's go." I turn at Masahiko-san's voice, I stand and skip over to him as he holds out his hand. I grab his hand and as we pass by I stick my tongue out at the little girl, she starts crying again because my tongue reaches all of the way down to my belly button. I giggle evilly as we walk through the door and into the many hallways of the lab. Masahiko-san lets out a loud sigh, "can't you at least try to act civil?"

I start skipping again as I draw my tongue back into my mouth. "I'm only seven months old, you know!" I grin, "I have only tasted life and I have no idea when I will hear the sweet call of death."

"Ugh, now you've started parroting Yoshito-sama…" He mutters as he takes out his phone and starts texting. "We have to get you to nen training."

"Can we go outside for it?" I ask hopefully, I've never been outside before and I really want to know all of the colours out there. At least I already know a bunch because I can change colours but I just really wanna see real grass and real trees.

"No."

"Aww!" I complain loudly, "when can I finally go outside!?"

"When you're older." He says vaguely.

"What do you mean "older"!? I could be a hundred years old before-" I hear a bang, I stare with both of my eyes as Masahiko falls on his face. "M-Masahiko-san?" I kneel down and try to roll him over.

"Ma-" I scream when I see the hole in his head, I jump and press my back against the wall. Nononono, this isn't real. "Th-This isn't funny!" I choke.

"Wow he really did pull it off, that crazy scientist." I freeze, my hair and tail are bone white. I stiffly turn around, there are two scary men that I've never seen before.

I start crying just like the girl that I tried playing with before, except my eyes don't make tears. I start running down the hall, "help! Somebody help me!" I scream at the top of my lungs, I trip over something and fall. I turn around to see what I tripped on, another dead body, just like Masahiko-san. I panic and kick it away before running again.

The banging is everywhere, I cover my ears and keep running. I jump and swerve to avoid more dead bodies. Eventually I turn a corner and run into what feels like a wall. But when I step back I realize that it's the back of another strange man, I try to run away but they grab my arm.

"So you must be the one that we came here for." I struggle against his grip but he's way too strong. Suddenly, something in my mind snaps, the world around me becomes slow motion. I think about what these men did to Masahiko-san, what they've done to the rest of the scientists who I've seen around, what they are either going to do or have done to Yoshito-sama. Anger bubbles up inside of me I see some of the hair that's in my face turn a mix of dark red and black.

I scream as I round on the man and slam a nen filled fist into his face. He immediately lets go and shouts in pain, I turn to his partner and launch into the air. I spin and hit him over the head with my tail. He's knocked out, my left eye glares down at them while my right eye searches for more enemies. When I don't see anymore I keep on running down the halls.

I need to find a way outside, this is the only way I won't be kidnapped. I see another man who I've never seen before so I stop. It takes a second for him to notice me and when he does he smirks.

"Finally, we can get out of here now." The first step that he takes I aim and launch my tongue at him. It hits his arm and sticks, I use nen and with all of my power, I throw him to the side. I keep running.

I begin a cycle, I keep running if I run into a person that I've never seen before, I beat them up. I only stop when I see a person in a lab coat. "Chameleon-sama!" They cry out when they recognize me.

I freeze for a second, not sure if it's really safe. But when the person topples I run over, "Ch-Chameleon-sama, you need to get out of here!" Who I recognize as a woman now says weakly. I silently reach out and clutch her hand, my hair and tail have now turned blue-grey out of distress and sadness.

I can't believe that this is real. I-I was just going to go to nen practice, I was only just teasing that little girl. I was only just talking to Masahiko-san. I start sobbing, what went wrong!? Why is this happening!?

The light fades from the woman's eyes and I cry even harder. How can bad things happen so fast?

I feel myself being picked up but I don't bother struggling or paying attention to who it is. I just want to disappear from this place, be somewhere quiet and alone, with no banging sounds, no dead bodies.

"How did this happen?" I ask out loud, either the person who's carrying me doesn't respond or I can't hear them.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"Now look here, friends! This is a rarity, in fact, there is only one of these in the entire world!" I'm hearded to the front of a stage, I keep both of my eyes down but I can sense that people are still watching me. "The worlds very first human-animal hybrid! Normally people have to train for years to resemble and animal but not this one! She was born like this!" People are talking, it's too loud in here. I wish that I was back in the lab.

"To add to that, she is already strong and knows how to control her nen!" I wish that I was home. "We will give you an example of her skills!" I freeze, only one of my eyes moves to looks at the burly man entering the stage.

The announcer lady moves to the side, "Chameleon-chan managed to knock out five adult men before she was actually caught! Let's see what she does now!" Now I know what's happening, this guy is gonna try and beat me up. Well, I won't let him, my hair flares into red along with my tail.

He's coming toward me with a confident smirk, "leave me alone!" I snap at him, why won't these people just let me be!? He doesn't even slow down, he doesn't care what I said.

Black, yellow, green, and white mix in with my already red colour because of all of my emotions. The announcer lady says something but I don't listen as I zero in on the man.

The idiot is ignoring all of my warning signs, so I guess that it means that he'll actually attack.

I sink into a fighting stance, I have my right eye watch the top half of his body while the left watches the bottom. As soon as he gets into range I aim and launch my tongue. It wraps around his neck, choking him, I use all of my strength to throw him into a wall. After that I let my tongue slip back into my mouth, ew, I can taste his sweat.

He stands back up and angrily runs at me, I think that he's gonna try and punch me in the face. Nope.

He swings at me but I step to the side, I catch his legs in a nen infused low sweep. When he falls on the ground I finish the fight by slamming my tail into his back.

He's knocked out, dead silence fills the room. I wince as I feel something grab my hand and try to step away, but I stop when I realize that it's the announcer lady. She holds my hand up above my head, "we have a winner! Let's start the auction price at 800 thousand!" I stare in confusion and shock as people start shouting higher and higher numbers.

Now I understand what's happening, they're selling me.

I understand why Masahiko-san said that I shouldn't go outside yet.

Finally, the price is chosen and I'm led off of the stage. I hang my head low, I don't want this. What would somebody want me for? Well, I have been told that I'm special for my entire life, that I'm better than everyone. It must have to do with that.

I want to ask questions but I decide that the people who are watching me don't deserve to have me talk to them. I don't like anybody here. Not one bit.

I sit in a corner and wrap my tail around myself, it's turned back into the depressing blue.

I don't know how long I sit there, I fell asleep a couple of times. "Get up, your buyer's here to pick you up."

I look up to see my guards, with a tall smiley businessman. "You must be Chameleon, it's nice to meet you!" He holds out his hand, obviously for me to shake it. I stare at it for a moment but decide that he doesn't deserve my attention either. After a moment he lets out a sigh, "in time you'll find that we've become friends! I'm looking forward to it!"

"Just warning you, sir. She hasn't responded to a single person talking to her yet, and she bit off a few of the other guard's fingers. Are you sure that you want her?" I overhear one of the guards say, it's true, I did bite off some guy's fingers. But they tasted bad so I decided to stop doing that.

"Are you kidding? I already payed for her didn't I!?" The man pauses as I look up at him, "and besides, part of being a Shadow Beast is being mean." He says with the smallest smirk.

...Shadow Beast…?

~0~

A/N: Ooo, here comes the cannon part of the story! After this chapter I'm gonna have a bunch of time skips and stuff.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

"Hello Chameleon-sama! I'm your new caretaker!" I look up at a younger woman with brown hair and brown eyes, she looks plain. Her face falls and she stares in shock.

...I said that out loud, didn't I?

"Now now, Chameleon-chan, be nice." Smile Man says, I haven't bothered to learn his name, so that's what I call him.

For these past few months I've found out that the people who bought me aren't so bad after all. I'm basically treated like a queen, a queen that gets her exercise and gets to go outside all of the time. Sometimes people like to take me to fancy dinners to show me off. But then a lot of people are saying that I'm being spoiled rotten and that I'll "turn soft", but then all of the people who say that are poor.

One thing that I don't like so much is that whenever I'm in public I have to wear these huge goggles so people can't see my eyes. I also was taught to put nen into my tail so it turns invisible, and I can control my hair colour now.

I sigh, at least with my goggles I look cool even if they aren't super comfortable. But now they're starting to pressure me into wearing them all of the time.

I let the adults talk more without paying any attention. Yes, I do know that it would be smarter to listen when people are talking about me, but I always just assume that I'll find out later. Whatever it is is future me's problem, so I could care less. That is a very and way of thinking of life.

"Follow me, Chameleon-sama!" Plain Lady calls and I comply.

We walk all of the way out of the building, "hey, where're we going?" I ask curiously, one of my eyes is in Plain Lady, while the other is taking in all of my surroundings.

"To the place where you're gonna train, you need to get stronger before you can work with the other shadow beasts."

"Oh," I suddenly remember to turn my tail invisible before we get into a fancy car.

~0~

"WHOA!" I cry at the huge tower in front of me. I've never seen a building this big before! I know that Plain Lady tells me the name but I don't listen, "you know what!? I'm just gonna call it BFT!"

"What does that stand for?"

"Big Fat Tower!" Plain Lady starts laughing.

"You're so funny, Chameleon-sama!"

"I know!" I start laughing but suddenly stop, is this what the adults say when they say that people shouldn't "stroke my ego"? What even is an ego? "Hey, do you know what an ego is?" I ask curiously, I don't use the name that I came up for Plain Lady because I don't think that she'd like it very much.

"An ego is somebody's self-esteem, how they feel about themselves. Some people have really low self-esteem, but some people have way too high self-esteem. Usually when people have too much self-esteem people start to call it "ego"." Plain Lady explains as we step into BFT.

"How do you know when you have too much self-esteem?" I can sense people staring at me.

"Hmm, I guess that when you think that you're better than everyone else." She says thoughtfully, oh no I must have a HUGE ego then!

"Do you think I have a big ego?" I ask.

"Oh no! Of course not!" Plain Lady cries, frazzled. Lier.

We reach the front desk, I stand on the tips of my toes to see. I don't really bother listening to what the adults say up until the desk lady's shocked that I'm gonna be the one to train here.

"E-Excuse me, how old are you!?" She stutters as she leans over the desk to looks at me.

"Seven months-I-I mean seven years old!" I correct myself, if she knew that I was born only seven months ago she'd know that I'm not really human. I was born already with the body and maturity of a five year old and I've barely grown at all. I'm starting to get worried that I'll stay this size for the rest of my life.

"Seven years old!? Jeez, that's the second one!"

"Second one?" Both Plain Lady and I ask at the same time.

"Earlier today a little boy with white hair came and signed up, I remember...he's from the Zoldyck family." Apparently the Zoldyck family is a big deal because Plain Lady gasps.

"Chameleon, if you ever have to fight that boy, give up." I frown at her words, what's so special about this kid?

"Anyways, just sign this sheet and you're in!" The desk lady moves on before handing me a sheet of paper, I don't bother reading before signing it in my sloppy writing. I hand it back to her, "thank you! Your first fight is at 3:00pm today!"

"Thank you!" I wave at the lady as we walk away, people are still staring at us. I make an effort to look a beefy man in the eye and stick my enormous tongue out, "bleh!" He immediately looks away.

"Chameleon-sama, be nice." The exact same words as Smiley man, "also, hold my hand so you don't get lost."

"Ugh, fine." I groan.

~0~

I smirk confidently as I step onto the fighting square. Yet another beefy man stands in front of me, he looks shocked at my appearance.

"Here are the rules;" whoa, I only just noticed the referee. "The way that you win is either by knocking your opponent out or earning ten points! A clean hit is one point, a critical hit is two points, you also earn a point every time you knock your opponent out of the ring! Do you understand the set rules?"

"Wait! Do I have to fight this little kid? That seems low…" The man complains and my smirk widens, he's going to go easy on me.

"Chameleon is a fellow fighter, she signed up for this. Now beg-"

"Does it count as a win if you kill your opponent?" I interrupt curiously, the two stare at me in shock. They seem horrified.

"-Kills begin to count as wins after you reach the 200th floor! Now, three! Two! One! Fight!" Wow, I'm impressed that the dude managed to brush off my question so quickly.

"Hey kid I'm gonna give you one chance…" I don't listen to the rest of his words because I realize that there are screens everywhere and one of them is zoomed in on us. And when I listen among the loud surroundings there's an announcer talking about us, I grin because this is a perfect chance for me to show off.

"Alright, let's do this!" I say half to myself, ooo, with my invisible tail I can make it look like I have some special invisible power and can make things move with my mind!

Woo! I look back at the man who's still giving me a concerned look. It looks like he isn't gonna attack first so I guess that I'll go.

I don't even need to get any closer!

I aim and launch my tongue at him, it wraps around his waist and I use nen to get enough strength to throw him out of the ring.

"One point for being sent out of the ring!" The referee cries as he gestures to me. I watch as the man climbs back onto the fighting square. He looks pretty annoyed, good thing I'm planning on finishing this right away.

Jeez it's loud in here! I don't like it!

My moment of distraction was not very good for me. Because I'm that time the guy got within three feet of me.

"Gah!" I shout in panic and I barely dodge a punch, well, at least now I know that he's motivated to fight me. I jump just above his head, I spin in midair, and smash his face with my tail.

He falls to the ground, "KO!" There's a sudden uproar in the crowd watching, I look around to see all of the screens focussed on me.

"Chameleon has used an invisible force to beat her opponent! It's amazing!" I smile sheepishly and adjust my goggles, I have to make sure that I don't let this get to my head…

"You may move up to floor 20!" I grin and give the crowd one last wave before leave the fighting ring.

~0~

I keep on winning, fight after fight I always win. It doesn't matter who I'm up against, none of them stand a chance.

"Yet another amazing win from Chameleon-hime! How does she do it!?" I wave at the crowd with both hands and even blow a kiss. I've become really famous at BFT, well, it's actually called the Heaven's Arena but who cares?

I guess that the opponents are getting tougher as I move up the ranks, but nobody here knows how to use nen. That's my trump card.

I'm on floor 192 now, my next fight will bring me to the 200th floor. I've been told that that's where things start to get serious.

I skip off of the small arena and all of the way down the hallway, "excuse me!" I stand on the tips of my toes to talk to the desk lady.

"Chameleon-dono!" She cries in surprise, "here, I have all of your money. And here's you next fighting time!" I grab both and walk away. I look at the sheet of paper with my time and the person who I'm fighting.

Hmm, three days from now, 4:00pm, and who I'm fighting…

Zoldyck Killua.

I grin giddily at the thought, I've seen a couple of his fights. He's definitely tough.

"Chameleon-sama!" I jump at Plain Lady's voice, I learned her name awhile ago but I like getting a reaction out of her. "Who are you fighting next?"

I freeze, uh oh, she told me not to fight Killua. Not ever. I hold the papers behind my back and make an effort to pout in a cute way. "It's a secret." Her face falls into a suspicious frown.

"Who is it?" She says with a serious note.

"It's a secret, besides I don't even know the person!" I try to lie but she isn't falling for it.

"Give me the paper!"

"No!"

One thing leads to another and soon we're fighting over the paper, it's actually pretty funny because I'm stronger than her.

"Ch-Chameleon-sama! Give. Me. The. Paper." She tries to wrestle it out of my tiny hands but I twist, I break the paper away and stand a few feet away. "Chameleon-sama, I'm going to count to three…"

I take one look at her, then at the paper. "One...two...three!" As she takes a step forward I shove the entire thing in my mouth, including the money. "CH-CHAMELEON-SAMA!" Plain Lady screams at the top of her lungs, I pick the money out, but swallow the rest whole. That's a special skill of mine, swallowing things whole. Well, actually since my tongue's so long I can hide a BUNCH of things in my mouth.

But this time I decided to swallow it.

Plain Lady takes both of my shoulder and starts shaking me. "THAT ISN'T HEALTHY AT ALL YOU NEED TO STOP DOING THINGS LIKE THAT!" Bystanders are laughing.

Suddenly she stops and lets out a sigh, "whatever what's done is done. Let's go to our rooms." I hold her hand as we walk through the halls, on the way I spot a boy with white hair and blue eyes.

We make eye contact and he immediately looks away with a "tch" sound. I narrow my eyes, just wait Killua-san, in three days I'm going to give you a run for your money!

~0~

"Finally the long awaited fight is today! Zoldyck Killua vs Chameleon, who will win!?" Jeez, this place is full. I swear that almost every seat is taken.

I'm the one who entered the ring first, now I'm just waiting. I search the crowd for Plain Lady, somehow I manage to spot her and send her a small wave. She looks absolutely horrified.

"And Killua enters the ring!" There's an uproar in the crowd as the boy enters the ring. I think that he's confident, he has his hands shoved in his pockets.

"I'm assuming that you two know the rules?" Both of us nod at the ref.

"Let's have a fair fight!" I cry excitedly, hah, I'm lying. This isn't a fair fight with my nen.

"Ok!" Killua-san gives me a thumbs up with the smallest smile that I've ever seen.

"3, 2, 1, fight!" I immediately run at him, after so many fights I've managed to come up with a pattern.

If he dodges to the right I'll use a low sweep, if he dodges to the left I'll use my tongue and throw him out of the ring, and if he dodges backwards I'll launch into the air and hit him with my invisible tail.

I reach him and swipe, he jumps backwards. I smirk, tail it is.

I jump high into the air, as usual I spin. I twist my head to get a good view of my target before landing the finishing blow. But- my tail is stopped.

My back hits the ground and I look up to see the boy holding what looks like air. My tail!

"Let go!" I snap angrily.

"Clean hit!"

"What!?" I stare at the screen to see that Killua got a point. My anger only grows so I use my tail to lift him off of the ground, the I quickly stand and slam it down. He hasn't let go.

I cry out in pain when he squeezes my tail, hard. The level of pain that it gives me makes me lose my concentration, this make my tail appear.

All of a sudden there's a ridiculous amount of sound, people are shouting. All that I can make out is that my great big secret's been discovered. In my annoyance my hair and tail start to match my emotions.

Yellow with excitement, white from shock, red for frustration. All of these colours are mixing into patterns.

I'm starting to panic, I don't know what to do, I don't want to lose, not yet! "I said let go!" I snap again, when he doesn't follow my instructions I make a quick decision. Even though he's heavy I manage to lift him high into the air with my tail. I slam my tail into the ground again, he somehow manages to land on his feet. How strong is this guy!? If it were a grown man and he tried to land in his feet his legs would've been broken!

I keep on spamming this attack, eventually...eventually he won't be able to handle it anymore!

But soon I've exhausted myself, I glare at him. I need to try a different approach…

I thinking hard but all of a sudden I'm in midair. Shoot! He threw me!

I cry out is dismay as I soar off of the fighting square, but I manage to land on my feet. "One point!" I growl angrily, well at least my tail's free. But I just discovered a great big weakness that I have.

I jump back into the ring, I can still win. He only has four limbs, I have six including my tongue.

My tongue! I'll use that to keep my distance!

I aim, wait how did he get right in front of me so fast!?

I barely manage to block before he punches me. I skid backwards a couple of metres, I look at my arms. Jeez, if I hadn't used nen that would have shattered my arms.

Killua-san looks thoroughly shocked that I managed to block his blow, he stares at me with his eyes wide before asking. "How did you-" I see my chance and I don't let him finish, right hand, 70%.

He sees what I'm doing and crosses his arms over his face. I can't help but grin, poor choice.

Instead of aiming straight for his face, I manage to do a sort of uppercut move to his stomach. He flies out of the ring and slams into the wall, "critical hit, and being knocked out of the ring, three points!" We're tied now, I smirk and roll my shoulder. See, this guy isn't so tough, I can handle this fight!

Suddenly I feeling a ridiculously powerful force hit the back of my neck, my breath catches in my throat and I feel myself fall face first onto the dusty ground.

I jinxed myself didn't I?

I black out.

~0~

I groan as I open my eyes, Plain Lady's above me. "Chameleon-sama! How are you feeling?" She cries somewhat desperately.

I moan again but try to sit up, "I-I think I'm fine. What happened again?"

"You lost to Killua, he karate-chopped the back of your neck. What were you thinking, remember what I told you about fighting him!?" Oh now I remember, and I was so sure that I had a chance at winning… My hair and tail become a depressed blue.

I ignore her question, "where are we now?" Plain Lady's looking more and more annoyed.

"We're in a limousine, about to leave Heaven's Arena because now people know what you are!" So we haven't left yet? I force myself to sit up and I look out the window, oh jeez, people are right outside of the car!

"Gah!" I jump in surprise when I see the flash of a camera. Whatever, it should be fine because the outside of a limousine's windows are dimmed so people can't see inside.

But, in the smallest gap of people, I recognize a white haired boy keeping his distance. "Killua-san!" I cry in excitement, and of course the impulsive me opens the door and zooms past the people who're in my way. I skid to a stop in front of him and just kind of grin stupidly.

He looks really confused, "uhh, hi?"

"Hi! Congratulations on the match! You're actually the first person to ever beat me, so...yeah!" I hold out my hand, wow, he must be really strong. I wanna fight him again some time. He just stares at my hand blankly so I cover the awkwardness up by adjusting my glasses. "Uhh, if I ever see you again I'll be strong enough to beat you by then!"

Suddenly an odd feeling passes over me, what is that? I turn my gaze to see a tall guy making his way toward us, I can't help but stare at him.

He has wide black eyes and also black hair, he's wearing a lot of green. I gulp, he's scary.

Killua notices the new focus of my attention and turns to wave at the man. "That's my older brother." He states calmly, I stare at him in shock. So he has to deal with that creep on a daily basis!?

I said that out loud…

Killua bursts into laughter, my hair turns bright pink from embarrassment.

"Chameleon-sama!" My arm is grabbed and I'm dragged away, "don't do things like that without warning!"

"But I wanted to talk to Killua-san!" I complain loudly as we make our way through the crowd of reporters.

"You shouldn't be anywhere near him! He's dangerous!" I send her a glare, he didn't seem very dangerous…

~0~

"Yo, I'm the new Shadow Beast." I greet as I land beside a man with bat wings. First mission, after five years of training I finally have my first mission!

He turns to me and studies me skeptically, "ok, what's your name?"

"Chameleon!" I chirp confidently and adjust my goggles.

"Uhh, and how old are you exactly?" He says with a huge frown.

"Six!" I hold up my fingers as I say it, "I'm looking forward to working with you!" This guy does not look impressed, he takes out a phone, texts something, then looks back at me.

"Whatever, I'm Bat." I frown at his hostility, what's his problem? I don't think that I've done anything wrong…

Whatever, I need to focus on the mission. We were called here because somebody stole a bunch of the mafia's money and regular grunts couldn't handle it. So they called in a couple of the REAL nen users. I've memorized the face of our lead, and we got a tip that he's actually in the building right in front of us.

I scan the streets below us, my eyes moving in all directions. I gasp, "there!" I point at the man as he looks around with suspicion all over his face. "He's in a huge crowd, so maybe we should tail him until he's all alone!" Bat follows where my finger's pointing and narrows his eyes at the target.

"You're right, we don't want to draw very much attention to ourselves. The problem is that it's difficult for somebody like me to be subtle, since there isn't very much cover in the city."

"Then how did you manage to get to the very top of this building without being spotted?" I ask curiously, his only answer is a glare. "Just asking the obvious question." I say with a shrug.

He continues to glare so I just let out a sigh and stand. "~I can handle this cuz' I can turn invisible~" I singsong as I jog on the spot and stretch. "~They won't see me comin'!~" Bat is just looking more and more irritated, what a stick in the mud.

"Let's, go!" I cry as my entire body disappears, I hop a building closer to the target.

"Be careful!" I hear Bat shout from behind, I almost wave back but I remember that I'm invisible.

I keep a careful eye on the target, every time he moves I adjust my position. Eventually he goes into a fancy looking building and I frown. I can definitely get in there but it's gonna make this mission more risky…

Whatever!

I land on the street, people don't notice me at all. I walk to the front entrance of the building and pick somebody to tag behind. I move right behind them so nobody notices the longer amount of time that the doors stay open, once I'm in I look around for my target. I easily spot him again and start following him through a maze of hallways. Soon he stops, jeez this guy's nervous, he's rank with fear.

Yeah, I can smell people now, I can also turn invisible without using any nen.

Now would be a good chance for me to make my move, but I stop when a new person's scent enters my nose. The new guy walks right past me, obviously not noticing an invisible little girl.

"Do you have the card?" The new man growls, I smirk. What they stole was a debit card with millions of dollars on it, if they're going to exchange it now I can just steal it and run.

The target reaches into his pocket, perfect. "Yes, I do." I aim, the second that he pulls out the card I launch my tongue. It sticks to the card a pulls it back to my mouth. I place the card carefully under my tongue and bolt, still invisible. I easily lose them and head back to where I left Bat.

He jumps when I appear out of nowhere. "Did you get the card?" He asks seriously, I nod and pull it out of my mouth, "that's mildly disgusting."

"Do you want me to polish it or something!?" I snap, offended.

"No, it's just that you could have just put it in one of your pockets." I sigh, whatever, my first mission was a success and that's all that matters.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

"Can't you take a mission seriously for once?"

"Do you REALLY think that I have the mental capacity to take anything seriously!?" I snap back at Owl, my hair's starting to turn orange. "Besides, I can afford it cuz' I'm strong!" Dark purple mixes in with the orange, I flick my tail.

"That isn't the point of this argument!"

"Then why are we arguing!?" I ask just to get a reaction.

"YOU ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED OUR HOSTAGE OFF OF A CLIFF!" He yells at me and I make an effort to take off my goggles before rolling my eyes.

"Pff, I caught him didn't I?" We had been interrogating a man and using the threat of throwing him off of a cliff. I was the one holding him and my hands just kinda...slipped. Luckily I saved him from his doom by jumping off after him, stopping myself and catching him with my tail. But it didn't really help that before I did all of those cool and heroic things I said the first word that came to my mind; "Butterfingers."

"And besides, I got him to talk." I continue and glance at the hostage, he's sitting in a shivering heap a couple of feet away. Owl lets out a sigh and takes you his phone, he dials a number and turns around as he talks to the person on the other line.

"Yeah, mission completed. What do you want us to do with the hostage?" There's a moment of silence before he turns and gives me a curt nod.

I nod back and turn to the hostage, the man gives me a look of pure fear but I don't react. I stare down at him for a moment before lifting my hand to deal the finishing blow.

~0~

"Yeah, yeah, I get it! If I get a single call from the mafia while I'm at the hunter exam I'll come right back!" I say into the phone as I pack. "I can handle this, even if I AM eight years old."

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" My current caretaker asks from the phone.

"Yes I am! Every other Shadow Beast has their hunter license, why shouldn't I!? Even Owl has one and I've been a Shadow Beast longer than he has!" I complain loudly as I zip my backpack shut, "besides, I wanna try my new nen ability out." I say with a smirk.

"Ok, just be careful."

"Yeah, yeah," I hang up as I close the door to my hotel room. I skip down the hallway, careful to keep my hair a cool blue and my tail invisible. The way that I'm gonna get to the hunter exam is by train, it should just take a day.

Ooo, I wonder how many other people there'll be taking the exam. I also wonder if there are gonna be any written tests, I really don't like those…

Before I know it I've made it to the train station, I'm having a hard time keeping my hair just one colour I'm so excited! As I wait for my train I can't help but jog in my spot, a lot of other people are waiting for the train too. They're all staring at me but I don't really care, if any of them try to pick a fight I can easily beat them.

I abruptly stop jogging when my phone rings, I take it out. A feeling of dread fills my stomach as I look at the caller ID, it's Owl, they can't be calling me back already! "Hello?" I ask as I answer.

"Yo, are you at the train station?"

"Yeah, I'm just waiting." I answer nervously, I start tapping my foot.

"Well, I just called to wish you luck." I freeze for a second, that is a waste of a call. Just to wish me luck?

I silently process what he said before replying. "Aww, I thought that you didn't like me for all this time!" I tease with a grin.

"Shut up." He immediately hangs up, I put the phone in my pocket with a sigh. That's probably the closest I'll ever get to having a friend among the Shadow Beasts, nobody really likes each other even though we work with each other regularly. Or I guess that most of us just want to keep it professional. Not like I'd ever want to be friends with Leech, Worm, or Sea Urchin anyways.

"Hey kid! You're on this train, right!?" I jump and look around, while I was lost in thought the train pulled up and everyone got on.

"Y-Yes! Thank you!" I say to the man as I climb on.

"No problem, you're just a kid anyway so I thought I might help you out a little." I smile at him and adjust my goggles, the guy has pink hair and brown eyes. He's wearing an even brighter pink beeny and also a red vest with a white shirt underneath. "I'm Pokkle by the way."

"I'm Chameleon!" I say as I start walking, looking for a place to sit. I make an effort to remember his name, it would be embarrassing if he had to repeat it or I just revert to picking a random nickname like I usually do.

"That's a weird name, is it a code name?" Pokkle asks curiously, I frown at him.

"Do you want me to tell you a code name?" I ask back, after being asked this question millions of times I've started to react with sass. I'm getting tired of it.

The man looks shocked, "uh no thank you! Sorry about that!" I study him again, he may seem a little bit soft but I can tell that he's confident by the way that he holds himself. He'd make a good ally.

"So, why do you want to become a Hunter, Pokkle-san?" I ask as I sit down in a booth, I really am curious. I actually wanna know why everyone here is taking the exam if I can.

"I want to hunt magical beasts, like, both discovering and hunting." Pokkle says as he sits down.

"Ooo, that sounds like fun!" I say excitedly, maybe I could do that in the future!

"Why're you taking the Hunter Exam?"

I think before I say, "all of my friends have their licenses, so I thought that I may as well get one too!" Half truth, they aren't actually my friends. They're coworkers.

"Wow, all of your friends are Hunters?"

"Erm, yes."

"And you're parents are letting you do this?" I freeze, oh god what do I say? I don't have parents, should I tell the truth? I'd feel bad about lying to him…

"Umm, I don't have any parents." I pause, "but my caretaker said yes!" At this point I'm having a very intense struggle not to let my hair burst into a million colours.

"Oh… well alright." And awkward silence follows, I hate awkward silences.

"So, tell me more about hunting mystical creatures!"

~0~

Everything was going fine UNTIL IT WASN'T!

The train flew off of the tracks while we were going through some mountains. I shriek in surprise, for less than a second my tail is completely visible, because my entire body turned pure white.

As the terrifying plummet takes place, I grab onto the roof and hold on as tight as I can. Everyone in the train car screams at the top of their lungs, I look around for an escape. Within a few seconds my left eye spots an open window, I allow myself to let go of the roof, my fall is incredibly slow because of the fast rate that the train is falling.

I land on a man's head and use that to launch out of the window. Once I'm out I turn my head around before spotting a tree and wrap my tail around a branch. I grunt in pain as I feel muscles being pulled because of the momentum, but I manage to keep myself from falling.

I allow myself to drop and watch as the train continues it's plummet, a few other people jump out but that's it. I smile faintly as I recognize Pokkle-san in the mix.

The train suddenly lurches to a stop and I recognize a metal wire lifting out of the ground. The train begins to slowly be dragged backwards, huh, so this happened on purpose.

I frown skeptically, it was probably a test. Yes, that's it. "Oi!" I turn around and spot a young woman waving from the very top of the mountain. She must be using nen to project her voice, "all of you who managed to get out of the train! Get up here, I'll lead you to where you need to go!"

"Alright!" I mutter in excitement as I stretch out my muscles, getting up there won't be easy. "Hey! Do you guys wanna make this a race!?" I call down to the others who just started trudging up the mountain.

"Are you serious!?" A man snaps at me almost as if he's angry at me.

"Pokkle-san?" I ask tentatively.

"Umm, no thank you." I let out a huge sigh of disappointment, these people are so boring. In the Shadow Beasts at least Shark and Bat would take my challenge just to try to knock me down by a few pegs. Of course I always lose to them though, they're bigger, stronger, and a lot more experienced than me.

Ugh and with these guys I would stand a chance… "Ya know what? I'll just make sure to get up there before the rest of you!"

"You'll never do that if you don't shut up." A man snaps as he passes me, my hair almost turns bright red. That's it, I'll get so far ahead of this man, I'll be waiting at the top for him for hours!

So, instead of trudging up the steep slope like everyone else, I decide to run. Like an idiot.

~0~

I desperately gasp for air as I drag myself over the last ledge. "Finally," I state as I pull myself up and lay on my back. "I may or may not have made a very poor decision based on how egotistical I am."

The woman stands over me and frowns, "that was pretty fast, only an hour past the record." I groan, my self image was just ruined, an entire hour!? You've gotta me kidding me! That would mean that the fastest person only took ten minutes! "I have some hot chocolate if you want." I slowly sit up, my muscles screaming in protest.

"Thank you," I say as I grab the thermos out of her hands. She takes out one for herself and sits down.

"So tell me kid, what's your name?"

"Chameleon," I take a sip of the sweet hot liquid and immediately feel it warm my insides.

"That's...a strange name. Where are you from?" I feel my heartbeat starting to slow down as I sit.

"Oh, here and there. I travel a lot," I say with my normal cheerful tone. I glance down the and spot all of the people still climbing, Pokkle-san's halfway up. I adjust my goggles and look back at the woman, she has dark red hair with matching eyes, along with really pale skin and when I look hard enough it has a pinkish tint to it.

"My name is Akasuki and I was born in Yorknew City, but since I became a Hunter I've been travelling a lot."

"Oh! I'm around Yorknew City a lot," I exclaim. Actually Yorknew City is where most of my jobs are. Most of my jobs involve surveillance, aka professional eavesdropping. Also stealing things and dealing with people who steal things from the Mafia. Jeez, an awful lot of thieves and people like that just seem to gather in Yorknew City...well I guess that it is where the a bunch of gangs meet up to make money and do that auction thing.

After a few hours the others finally make it to the top, by the time the last person makes their appearance at the top I've already had plenty of time to rest and recuperate.

"Now," Akasuki says as she stretches her arms. "Take one of these gliders each, we're going to fly the rest of the way." It literally looks like a bunch of hang gliders materialize out of thin air, so she's a conjurer…

"Huh!? You can't expect us to just magically know how to fly these damn things!"

"Watch your language, there's a child here." Akasuki mocks as she hands me one, I study the thing, looks pretty regular to me. "Anyways, I'll lead you to the Hunter exam. You should consider yourselves lucky, everyone else is going to be dropped off in a random town and they have to find their own ways to the exam. All that you had to do was climb a mountain."

"And that's SO much better," I overhear somebody hiss under their breath. Wow, most of these people kinda suck, they're boring.

Akasuki pauses before continuing, "anyways, my hang gliders are special. No matter what, they won't fall to the ground once you've lifted off. If you die, it's your own fault." Wow, I'm gonna get to FLY, that's pretty awesome.

I listen intently to her instructions, and then we're finally ready to go. I'm first to jump off of the cliff after Akasuki, I take a running start. Then I fly off of the cliff at full speed.

I cheer loudly as the hang glider immediately catches the wind and soars.

I glance behind me to see most of the others following, but some people stay behind.

"Wow this is sure gonna make one fantastic story!" I exclaim as we head off to the Hunter exam, where hopefully I'll finally earn some of my colleagues respect and acknowledgement.


End file.
